Jos Verstappen warned son Max to 'not at all' focus on his fifth title before Austrian GP

09:37, 30 Jun

bySandy van Wijngaarden

Max Verstappen endured a dramatic weekend in Austria. Even before the Grand Prix, his father, Jos Verstappen, had already drawn some painful conclusions. After the race at Spielberg, those concerns only seem to have grown stronger

Jos Verstappen was busy rallying himself last weekend. Nevertheless, he was certainly aware of what happened in Austria. "I managed to catch a bit of Q2," he told Racexpress.

Qualifying was underwhelming in the Red Bull camp, as the car clearly lacked raw pace. Verstappen lined up on the grid in seventh place with Yuki Tsunoda down in 18th.

"I saw the last lap when he received the yellow flag. But it didn't look fast enough. I could tell over the phone. He says it's not going well enough."

Jos Verstappen feared for a tough race before the Austrian Grand Prix

Jos Verstappen had already expressed concerns about the outcome before the Austrian Grand Prix even began. "When things are going well, he's up front, and there's high hope. But if you're seventh and more than half a second behind, I think hope is far away."

After the race, Verstappen was undoubtedly frustrated. On the very first lap, he was punted by Andrea Kimi Antonelli, leading to his first retirement of the season and a costly loss of valuable championship points.

Max and Jos Verstappen in Monaco

After a reasonably good weekend in Canada, the performance in Austria was disappointing. What's the cause? "It's a different circuit again. There's always been little grip. Other teams are making strides. I think Ferrari also brought good updates. We know that McLaren is always up there. Who else is in the mix? Mercedes is sort of in between."

Jos Verstappen had already warned, even before the race in Austria, that Max should stop thinking about the title fight. "He needs to be cautious. No crazy stuff. The most important thing is that he just scores points. With half an eye, or not at all, looking at the championship. Just doing his thing, what he needs to do."